Mark Call

Join Mark Call of Shabbat Shalom Mesa fellowship for a study of the first parsha in the last Book of the Torah, “Devarim”, aka Deuteronomy, and — at least once — the most-quoted reference when it comes to “Law” in the united States.

The parsha, and thus the Book, begins with a recap by Moses of a forty year journey through ‘the wilderness’ that could have been made in only 11 days, but wasn’t…and he reminds the ‘second generation’ of the sons of Israel in that mixed multitude why.

The Erev Shabbat overview of the portion (Deuteronomy 1:1 through 3:22)

Mark begins the Sabbath Day “deeper examination” of the parsha and a number of very-much-related Scriptures with a bit of characteristic “nerdiness” to set the stage: since both Scripture and history, and not to mention His physical universe and human nature, end up being cycles of repeating cycles, it’s important to ask not only where THIS story is, in context, but where WE are in a repeating cycle that at least ‘rhymes’.

Moses was addressing a group of people soon to enter, and hopefully conquer, the [promised] Land. Much later, as the haftorah reading from Isaiah 1 makes clear, they were ‘kicked out’, or sent into an exile that still persists. So, “where are we?” in that continuing cycle of fallen men repeating the same mistakes, but sometimes even more catastrophically?